Are Case Studies a Good Teaching Tool for CS1?

Abstract

In the summer of 1992 we decided to introduce the Case Studies, as described by Mike Clancy and Marcia Linn in their book Designing Pascal Solutions, in our introductory CS1 course for Computer Science majors. Our motivation was to do away with large programming assignments and to be able to teach what we consider important issues in a CS1 course. This paper will relate the experiences and results that we had with the use of Case Studies at Carnegie Mellon University during the 1992-1993 academic year. We decided to use a couple of old AP/CS tests to compare our students' performance against the results obtained by ETS. Currently, the introductory courses at CMU are taught using C, not Pascal, and we are in the process of developing case studies which can be used with the current language. A new book written by Clancy and Linn is in the works.

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Document Details

Document Type
Technical Report
Publication Date
Jan 01, 1995
Accession Number
ADA294844

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  • Jacobo Carrasquel

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  • Carnegie Mellon University

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  • Calculators
  • Case Studies
  • Computer Programming
  • Computer Science
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  • Construction
  • Curriculum
  • Education
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  • Lists (Data Structures)
  • New York
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  • South Carolina
  • Students
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